Owen's Birthday Invitations...

For Owen's 2nd birthday we are having a JOHN DEERE party in our backyard! Owen LOVES tractors!!!

Here is a look at the invitations... they are tickets and each person gets their own ticket to come and help us celebrate!

I will get pictures posted after the party takes place!! :)

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

We had a busy weekend... we had my Dad's family come up to our house Thursday night to spend the night and then they spent the day with us on Friday too!! We headed to Ida Grove on Friday night for a few days with everyone! My Mom made a great breakfast and dinner for everyone on Saturday and then we all went out to visit my Dad's gravesight for Memorial Day. We spent time visiting with everyone... it was nice!!! Wish Uncle Merlin could have been there too!

We went to visit Nina and Papa Hamann on Saturday night and the boys had fun wrestling with Papa and eating chips - which is their new FAVORITE thing to do... they call them "PAPA CHIPS"!! :) Thanks for the nice visit!! :)

We stayed in Ida Grove until Sunday morning... which was enough for Nick and I... our boys were having a tough weekend with little rest!!! - we needed to come home and get back to our routine!

Then tonight we went over to the Peck's for a Luau party! It was lots of fun and I won the contest for most festive side-dish!!! :) yippee!!! :) I never win anything!!! :) - Thanks Amy and Brian for a fun night!!!

... on another note - today is Owen's 2nd BIRTHDAY!!! We are celebrating next weekend though! - - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OWEN JOHN!!! We LOVE YOU!!! :)

... and on another note - tomorrow Nick and I have been married for 7 years!!!! WOW... time flies!!! :) Love you, Nick!!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Now the boys are sleeping in their own beds... and we are headed to ours for a GOOD NIGHT SLEEP!!! (what's that??) Hopefully the boys decide to sleep in tomorrow!!!! :)


Hope everyone had a nice weekend... here are some pics of ours...

Parker is such a little LOVER!!!
















Daddy taking the boys for a ride on Papa Wilson's old golf cart - they had a BLAST!!!









Matt and Uncle Mike...
















The boys LOVE to dance before bed... it is SOOO PRECIOUS!! :)

Parker's Preschool Program!

Parker is now finished with his 2-day/week preschool at Westview! He has had such a fun year and was sad to say bye to some of his friends! The school had a program for the kids on Thursday for them to sing some of the songs they have learned, show off their artwork and to have refreshments with their friends! Nick, Owen, Jadyn, my brother Matt and I went... and AUNT MERE met us there! - THANK YOU form coming!!! :) It was such a little cute program... the kids sang a "Hot dog" song, a "Jesus" song and a "Bumblebee" song! - they were all cute! Here are a few photos.

Here on the left is Parker singing the HOTDOG song! :)
On the right is Parker receiving his certificate for completing the preschool program.

Here are a few classmates... the first little girl is "Olivia" - Parker's crush! :)

Above is Parker and his buddies: Parker, Henry, Max and Cooper!

CONGRATULATIONS, Parker... we LOVE you & are so proud of you!!!

After the program... Nick, Matt and I took the kids out to lunch at the mall for Chick-Fil-A and then to play for a little bit... here are a few photos...

Early BIRTHDAY surprise!!!

Tonight "AUNT MERE" and "UNCLE JONNY" stopped by for a visit and to bring over Owen's b-day present since she won't be able to come to his b-day party... :( next weekend. - - - we are still hoping she stops by though!!! :)

Meredith is Owen's godmother for anyone who doesn't know. She is always getting him the cutest things... this time was 2 adorable outfits, flip flops, a hat and a savings bond! SUPER CUTE!!! - THANK YOU!!!

Also... tonight Owen said "MERE"!!!!! Yippee!!! We were soooo proud of him! :) And I think it made MERE's night!!! hehe!

Here are a few photos from his early surprise!!!















Here Owen is with the flip flops... he was sooo funny, he wanted them on and then was dancing and freaking out trying to get them off!!! hehe! He is sooo funny!!!










THANK YOU, "AUNT MERE"!!!!

Our Weekend...

We had a pretty relaxing weekend! Nick and I each had projects to get done over the weekend... so we worked on them and even got a few flowers planted in our front planters!! I am hoping to get more for the backyard this week! I have been busy with SCREEN ART and Nick has been trying to complete some of our projects around the house.
Saturday morning the boys and I went to visit a friend and have a little play-date with her little boy, Trey... which was lots of fun!!! THANK YOU, Julie for lunch and spending some time with us!!! While we played, Nick had to take a test for work... so he was gone all morning... then he headed over to the Ladwigs to help get a few things moved in.
In the afternoon, Parker and I went to do a marketing research project for little boys... it was really fun!! He got to watch a clip from a movie, do some computer testing and then got a FREE matchbox race track!! He was pretty excited!!! I even got $15 for bringing him and helping him on the computer!! - while we were there... Nick and Owen worked around the house and played outside.
Saturday night I got caught up on Desperate Housewives (DVR episodes) and Nick went over to the neighbors for a little get-together!
Sunday we went to church, grocery shopping, and played outside.
Nothing too eventful, and I unfortunately have no pictures to post... SORRY!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RALPH!!!

Today is our dog, RALPH'S birthday!!! May 14th, 2008 - He is 7 years old!!!

For his BIG day we played outside... got ice cream @ D.Q. for him... went for a drive... and of course sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY with party hats and all!! :) Ralph LOVES the hats!! hehe

Ralph is such a good dog! As much as I complain about the dog hair... I am truly THANKFUL to have such a good dog!!! He is very good with the kids... and is so good natured!

Here are some photos from his BIG day and some random shots of playing outside! - it was so NICE out today!!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY RALPH... WE LOVE YOU!! :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

I had a GREAT Mother's Day!!! We celebrate all week for any holidays that have to do with "ME"!!! - I know it's bad, but it not very often us Mommy's get our turn in the spotlight!! :)

So... at the beginning of the week the daycare kids and I all started to learn a new song...

I LOVE MOMMY

Sing to the tune of "Frere Jacques"

I Love Mommy, I Love Mommy, Yes, I do, yes, I do.

Mommies are for hugging, (Hug self)

Mommies are for kissing, (Blow a kiss)

I love you, yes I do. (point to Mommy)

Isn't that adorable??? So then we made cookies for the Mommy's (which I forgot to take a picture of (darn it - they were cute... and YUMMY). And we also made crafts for the Mommy's...

Pretty simple... but the kids LOVED it!!! They are paper flowers (colored by the kids - except the few I did for Owen :) - he gets bored easily!) glued to popsicle sticks and then a picture of the kids glued in the center. Each Mommy got a bouquet!!! :) The ones above are the ones for me. :)

Then All-weekend we got to do what I wanted... which was work on my living room/kitchen and get it all re-decorated and painted... and we got it all done!!! The side walls are a khaki/wheat color and the fireplace wall is burnt orange and the kitchen backsplash is chocolate brown! I am so happy with how it all turned out!!! :) Here are a few pictures...

And finally... the actual day!!! - We went to church in the morning and then out to lunch! Parker got to choose where we got to eat... he likes to pick!! :) He chose Red Robin!!! :) hehe! It was fun though... we saw my old boss there with her family too, so was fun to catch up with her!! The food was good and the service was great... so I can't complain! :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the Moms!!!

DAYCARE OUTING!

Today Parker had school again so we took him to school and then ran to the store this a.m. for a few things. We ended up at the dollar store and found lots of great supplies for craft making!! :) I was so excited... and everything was just $1.00 each!!! What a GREAT store!!! :) hehe

Then we went to get Parker and take our little friends home and decided to get lunch and go to the park... last minute we changed our minds and called Ruth! We ended up going over to Ruth's for lunch and playtime!! What a FUN day!!! :) The kids played outside at Ruth's and got to see some of their little friends too! They had lots of fun!!! THANK YOU RUTH!!!

Here are a couple of photos from lunch!

A Day at the PARK!

It was BEAUTIFUL on Tuesday!!! 75 or higher!!! We took Parker to preschool (which was a treat for the kids to get to go out on a Tuesday) and then headed to the park! We packed a snack to take with us so we got to have snack at the park too... which the kids all thought was SOOO fun! :)

Since Parker was at school, it was the boys and Avery (Jadyn was home sick). The kids had a GREAT time!!! We were there for almost 2 hours!!! :)

Afterwards we got McDonalds for everyone and headed home to eat our lunch out on the picnic table!!! The kids had a GREAT day and so did I!!! :)